Fun at the Texas State Fair

It's opening weekend at the Texas State Fair, and we spent our Sunday at the fairgrounds. We had a great time: we explored the exhibits, we watched a very low-budget puppet show, we looked at the animals on display in the Children's barnyard and laughed that dogs and cats were part of the exhibit (because they are so rare), and waited with unfulfilled anticipation for someone to regurgitate in the corndog eating contest. No one puked, to our dismay.

Having a Blast on the Midway

We tried lots of different fair foods, but this family of five (my mom was with us) got one of various things and shared. We were able to taste lots of things without spending loads of money and having lots of waste. Things we ate: hot dogs (we got one each of those at the Dollar Dogs stand), French Fries, Funnel Cake, Fried Latte, Tater Tornado, Gyro, Nachos Grande, Cotton Candy, Lemonade, Diet Coke, and water, water, and more water.

This is the Nachos Grande with chips shaped like the state of Texas.

Cotton Candy is a Fair-food Staple.

Because we typically get season passes at Six Flags, it kills this frugal mommy to spend between $4-6 for each child (so $8-12 total per ride for rides that don't require a parent) to ride rides at the Fair, so the standing rule is that we will only ride things that are unavailable at Six Flags. As one of their "ride" selections, they chose was the Funhouse, and they loved their time exploring the maze and the Funhouse Mirrors.







The kids and I went on the Ferris Wheel together for the first time. I am not at all afraid of heights or amusement park rides -- in fact, the higher and the faster, the better. My siblings are the same way, but my mother and my husband are not. Bub doesn't mind high, but he really dislikes fast. Gracie is as daring as her mommy, but we have a few inches to go before she'll be allowed on the rides I prefer.

This year, they both really wanted to go on the enormous Ferris Wheel, and I couldn't have been more pleased. They bugged me all day long, but we delayed the ride until right before we were leaving for the day -- in fact, it was the very last thing we did before we left. Of course, I took pictures throughout the experience. And fortunately, we were in a car with a woman terrified of heights, so she offered to take picutes of us to keep her mind off the fact that she was something like 212 feet in the air. These are my favorites.

The chickens remained on the ground.
They are the two little spots to the upper left of the white ticket booth.
This is a shot from halfway up the ride.

This is the closest zoom my camera would allow, and they still look small. Chickens. :)

We are very low on the ride,
but notice those are the tops of trees behind Gracie's head.